Behaviour of rubberised concrete with waste clay brick powder under varying curing conditions

Abstract

Recently, there has been a worldwide scarcity of pure water for curing concrete and this has called for alternative curing conditions including utilisation of sea water. An experimental study was conducted to examine the mechanical behaviour of rubberised concrete with waste clay brick powder (WCBP) under different conditions of curing including water and sea water. The samples of rubberised concrete incorporated with WCBP were cured in water and sea water for 90 days curing period. The findings showed that the conventional and modified concrete mixtures which were cured in sea water illustrated reduced compressive and split tensile strengths compared with corresponding mixes cured in water. Among specimens cured in each curing condition, concrete mixes with 5% WCBP showed increased compressive and split tensile strengths compared with the control concrete mixes. The lowest compressive and split tensile strength findings were noticed with rubberised concrete incorporated with WCBP. The comparisons of densities of specimens cured in water and sea water showed no significant distinctions between the curing conditions. Compressive strength seemed to be less sensitive to conditions of curing compared with split tensile strength. From the findings, minor reductions in compressive strengths for samples cured in sea water compared with those cured in water were suggested to be reflections of possibility of utilising sea water as a curing agent in areas where pure water is very scarce. The findings in this study seem to suggest that the use of sea water in concrete curing should not be feared and could be welcome, particularly in offshore constructions and isolated islands.